Reviews from a small country

Tag Archives: Laurence Jones

Ask anyone, pick on a stranger, find a friend to converse with down the local, take a trip out to your nearest and dearest and ask them a simple yet illuminating question, take heed of their answer and then go out into the street and ask the same line of enquiry to a thousand others, the startling realisation is that everybody has their own truth, the mantra in which they live by and the devotion to which their serve it.

The jewel in the young crown, the precious stone in the armoury of Blues and the natural complement to the likes of Joanne Shaw Taylor and Joe Bonamassa, Laurence Jones offers a freedom of mouth watering ability, one that survives in the ether of the mind well after the death of the day and the dawn of a new beginning. It is to the man and his guitar, the hospitality of Blues groove that the listener finds them themselves applauding the musicians for giving them a mature sense of Take Me High.

There is no stopping Laurence Jones, you could try, by all means if it pleases you to put obstacles in the way of sheer talent then so be it. However, be warned, like a beautifully preserved early 20th Century train going at full speed and with a driver so well versed in how his machine works and what it is capable of, those obstacles will be surely smashed to smithereens, the splinters flying into the detractor’s own pathway; for nothing except Laurence Jones can get in the way of this train.

For the romantic at heart, a caravan can conjure up images of life on the road, the sun forever on some distant horizon and the sound of a well played instrument soothing the soul as a camp fire roasts a meal and children play with content. For Ruf Records that romance is heightened by having celebrated 10 years as a producer of excellent material and what better way than to enhance its prestigious output than combining three of its major stars together under the Blues Caravan 2014 title.

Not since a certain young Joe Bonamassa stood on the stage for his debut performance has anything sounded this good for the very first time.

Laurence Jones is a revelation, a man who has left the murky world of desire and flown straight headlong and true into an album of incredible depth and feeling that the listener maybe forgiven for wondering at what point did they cross a boundary between fact and dreamlike narrative fiction. The lure of lute in a medieval poets hands was surely just as enticing as they made their way across the land thrilling all with stories, tales and fables, now for the 21st Century Laurence Jones entices and persuades easily as he steps out from behind the line of Blues know how and announces himself completely with the album Temptation.